The Firebird
by Whats'isname
Summary: When Naruto's body starts to destroy itself from the inside, he will have to leave the village that hates him to find out what is wrong. following an ancient myth in a desperate effort to cure himself when there is no other hope, Naruto comes across something that hasn't been seen in an eon. non-canon.
1. Prologue and Chapter 1

**THE ****FIREBIRD  
**

**Prologue**

It is common knowledge for many, that the nine Tailed Beasts are the strongest beings on the planet. Not many realise that these nine creatures are only portions of one truly devastating monster known as the Ten-Tails, this beast left devastation wherever it travelled as it had the power to destroy a continent. But what absolutely no one knows, is that long before any of the Tailed Beasts existed, there was an entity of absolute and incomprehensible power, once said to be the creator of all life and matter. This being of legend was said to have created everything in one massive explosion of power, a blast so powerful it will never stop moving or creating until the end of time.

Other tales of this being told of its death, some tell of the creature dissolving over earth and spreading its power amongst the living, some told of the being giving off an intense heat creating the magma and volcanoes of earth while also sacrificing its life to all of nature. But no matter the story, what was always the same was that this entity was the source of all chakra in the world and that it had left a prophecy hinting its return.

Although the history of this being may be lost to the current civilisation of Monks, Shinobi, Samurai and civilians, there are still remnants of this ancient creature in lost cities, temples, tombs and the like. In these lost civilisations, the records of the entity all give it different names; Bennu, Huma, Hō-ō, but all these civilisations refer to the being as a massive flaming bird with bright fiery feathers. This being is more generally known as the great Fire-Bird.

And now it is time for its rebirth.

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**Part 1**

**Chapter 1**

_She moves one way day and night.  
__Far from her parent, eldest of her siblings.  
__She holds the key to an entity.  
__Beneath a white coat, her heart resides.  
__Defended by a wall of water.  
__She will grant you access,  
__When the year is brightest._

_She will assess your quality.  
__If you pass, the entity shall be summoned,  
__Your life renewed of any condition.  
__All at the price of the demon lord's soul.  
__But should you fail, you shall burn for eternity  
__A fate worse than Hell's wrath._

"Whoever translated this did a terrible job of it." A young boy shroud in shadows commented, lowering the book on ancient myths to the table where he was seated. The book was old and torn, a fossil just waiting to collapse into dust.

The book now stationary resting on the table is neighboured by multiple stacks of books containing titles such as 'Quantum Mechanics: Concepts and Applications', 'The History of Civil War in Kirigakure' and 'Fuinjutsu: Application of Advanced Theory' and many others from a wide range of topics.

The previously mentioned boy rose from his chair, moving into a beam of light that had managed to make its way through a gap in the shutters covering the window.

Now that his face was illuminated, the boy was shown to have dirty blonde hair that would probably be a bright yellow colour if it wasn't covered in filth. Hidden behind his hair, were two dull blue eyes that showed intelligence and a weariness only found in those who had been betrayed so many times they couldn't trust anyone anymore.

The child's cheeks displayed six marks that gave the indication of whiskers. Between the cheeks was a mouth that seemed to be devoid of the presence of a smirk, grin or simple smile in its life.

His clothes could barely be called rags as torn and worn as they are they would provide no warmth in the cold of night.

The child picked up the books from the table, books that most men wouldn't even be able to read nor be able to understand the content. He carried them back to where they belonged and returned them.

Just as he put the last of his books back, he heard a door open through the silence. The boy quickly hid behind one of the bookshelves then slowly and quietly as to not draw any attention to himself he peeked around his cover.

He knew from experience that if anyone ever saw him, it would mean tremendous pain for him. That was one of the reasons he spent all his time in this library. Officially it was still running but nobody worked here and only rarely will someone actually come to the library.

It is probably because it is located in the part of the village that was most effected by the attack from the Kyuubi, effectively creating the Leaf Village's slums. The slums was an area where poverty run rampant through the ruins people still lived in. While inhabited, the slums was only home to those who most people avoided. People like alcoholics, addicts and the insane.

The boy was rightfully surprised and fearful when he hear a slurred voice from the entrance. "A-Are you shure this is the place? Why would a demon use a lir… a libar… a place for books?" one of the four men who walked through the entrance asked, slurring his words.

The hiding boy gasped lightly as he knew who they were talking about, before muffling himself with his hand. "But I've always made sure no one has been following me" he murmured lightly, while a confused and worried expression crossed his face.

Once again hushing himself he continued to listen to the group that had now made it to the table he had been sitting at earlier. "Yes I'm sure and how should I know what the demon is up to in here. Now just hurry up and get this over with." Another man spoke in sober voice.

The boy kept watching as each of the men picked up a bucket and moved to the closest bookshelf. The child almost had a heart attack when he realized what it was they were pouring all over the books. His books!

He tried to force himself to move, to stop them from destroying the only joy in his life. But no matter what he tried he could not push past his fear of being beaten again. He had frozen. He didn't move for ten minutes but when he did he realised the library was already burning. The child quickly ran to the exit, ignoring the burns he received from the fire.

When he was outside, he turned to watch as the building collapsed to ruin. His legs turned to jelly as tears poured down his face, his burns already healing just as they always did.

Dusk turned to evening and the boy just lay there in front of the ruins of the only place he cared about. Rain started to cascade down, reflecting the boy's feelings.

Nobody came to save the library. Nobody came to save the closest thing to a home the boy had. The child was numb, it was as if he couldn't feel anything anymore. When dawn finally came, the boy got up, he glumly hobbled down the side streets and alleyways, keeping to the shadows and making his way to the abandoned paper store where he resides. All in the way asking himself 'why me? What have I done to deserve this?'

None of the people in the village knew the boy's name, they only recognised him as a 'demon'. But even though they do not know his name, the boy knew it and he cherished it as it was the last thing he had left for him to prove his existence. He held onto it as all his hope had now been placed in that one name and he knew that if it was forgotten he would not be able to go on with life any longer.

His name was the last thing he had to cling to. "I am Naruto!"

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**This is my first story, so any critical reviews would be appreciated. I have already planned this story out and have been doing so for the past few weeks. part 1 of this story is loosely based off the story 'Chakra Collector' by Gazz Uzumaki. My story will be made up of 3 parts and I do hope you can stand my writing, I don't think it is too bad but nearly failing English in year 12 last year says otherwise. oh and I'm not great at writing riddles so don't bother me about that. I also like stories that are on the depressing side, so my writing may reflect that soon enough**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto **(forgot this last time)

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**Chapter 2**

In the forest outside Konaha, young Naruto was hunting. Hiding in long grass, silently stalking his prey. Watching as the rabbit nibbled on some grass. Naruto prepared himself to pounce. In an instant Naruto disappeared from where he was hiding and reappeared with the rabbit in his grasp.

He did not have knives or any other hunting tool, so he had to rely on his hands and sometimes his teeth.

Naruto quickly snapped the rabbit's neck and ended its life. Naruto wasn't one to play with his food, he always tried to kill without causing the animals much pain. He knew what it was like to be toyed with and tortured and wouldn't wish that upon another soul.

Naruto carried the rabbit back into the village through a hidden hole in the eastern wall he had found. Being careful not to be seen, Naruto made his way back to the old abandoned paper store where he had lived for the past year.

The store was only small as it used to sell stationary items like pens, paper and ink before the Kyuubi had attacked. Naruto used some of the leftover ink and paper to practice Fuinjutsu whenever he didn't have his nose buried inside a book.

He started a fire in what used to be the storage room that now had a portion of the roof missing, which allowed the smoke to escape. Once the fire was strong enough, Naruto skinned the rabbit with his fingers and fingernails and held it over the fire with the help of a stick.

Watching as the flames flickered, he couldn't help but be reminded of the library he had lost two weeks prior.

Naruto loved to read books. When he was reading them, he didn't have to worry about any of his problems in the real world. That was why he loved the library. It was an escape from his painful life.

He loved all books and topics. He knew a lot of things about the world because of that library.

The only unfavourable thing was that the only books on the ninja arts were the Fuinjutsu and chakra books. Not that Naruto didn't like those books, in fact they were some of his favourites. It was just the problem that he would never be able to become a ninja.

He had seen the power ninja possessed and he figured he would be able to protect himself if he had that power.

But it seemed everyone was against him.

About three years prior Naruto had overheard a couple of middle-aged women talking about signing their children up for the Ninja Academy. Naruto followed them to a notice board where they took a piece of paper, which Naruto figured had something to do with joining the Academy.

He waited for the women to leave the area before approaching the board. Naruto took one of the papers the ladies had taken and quickly darted into an alleyway to make sure he wasn't seen by any of the villagers.

He looked at the paper only to see unfamiliar patterns of curves and lines. Although he didn't know what the patterns meant, they did look awfully similar to the patterns he'd seen above most stores.

It was a week later when by chance, Naruto had run into the library looking for a place to hide from a mob of villagers calling for his blood. He knew that they all thought he was the Kyuubi, but he didn't have a clue why they thought that. For one he wasn't a fox. Second, he had never hurt anyone in his life. And finally, he wasn't a god-damned hundred metre tall demon.

Though sometimes he wished he was, then no one would be able to hurt him. But he would never say that. If he did he would be asking for his own death and life was something he still wanted to keep.

After a while of waiting and no villager knocking down the door, Naruto looked around only to see thousands of dusty old books arranged on shelves. He walked through the aisles until he came across a section that had books with pictures on the front. He picked one up and opened it to the first page. At the top of the page was some of those symbols he had seen on the paper he needed for the, but it wasn't long like most he had seen. Underneath were pictures of a few different things like an ant, an apple, an acorn and a few others. Naruto instantly noticed the similarities between the pictures. "This symbol at the top must represent the sound 'a'."

It had taken Naruto a month to teach himself to read and write. Now that he could, he realised how precious the knowledge held within the books was. He began to read every day, starting with the easy reads and gradually moving on to the more difficult books.

The day came to find out if he was accepted into the academy. Naruto hid in the shadows waiting for everyone to move on from the notice board where the children accepted were listed. Watching as all of the children's faces lit up, which showed Naruto that just about everyone is accepted.

When everybody had left Naruto slowly and wearily made his way over to the list. Naruto scanned over the names looking for his. Not seeing it, he looked over the list more carefully. After not seeing his name amongst the others, Naruto felt heartbroken.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw the Yondaime leave the Hokage Tower. He had heard that this man was one of the nicest and most heroic people in Konaha. He never recalled a time where the Hokage had chased him down just to cause him pain like so many of the other ninjas and civilians in the village did. 'Maybe he would be nicer than anyone else he had ever met.' Naruto thought.

Naruto started to approach the Yondaime to ask why he wasn't allowed to enter the ninja academy.

"Um… excuse me, Hokage-sir." Naruto called coming up behind the leader of the village. The Yondaime turned around with an amused smile on his face. Naruto watched as that smile dropped the Hokage narrowed his eyes when he saw who was talking to him. Almost quicker than Naruto could see the Hokage created a swirling blue ball of chakra and rammed it into Naruto's stomach, sending him flying through a concrete wall, breaking the spine and several ribs of his young body. The last thing Naruto saw before blacking out was the tear drop from the man's eye as he turned and left.

Snapping out of his trance, Naruto realised he had burnt the rabbit. Sighing, Naruto bit into the meat ignoring how hard it now was to chew the meat.

Naruto knew it wasn't normal for people to treat him the way they did. When he was younger he thought everyone was treated that way. But after years of observation, he noticed he was the only one treated the way he was. He had seen people interact talking without raised voices and violence, sometimes they even made strange noises that sounded like a dogs bark except with a higher pitch. He could only link the action with a word he had read in his books; laugh, that mean to express happiness. Another word that alluded him.

Naruto could only remember two people whom had ever been nice to him, the old man and the girl that worked at the ramen stand. But they had died in their little restaurant when it had exploded into flames. Nobody had bothered to try and find out who was murderer as the all the villagers saw them as traitors for associating themselves with the proclaimed 'demon'. It seemed everything he cared for was cursed to burn in flames.

Shaking his head, Naruto decided he needed to clear his head. He left the little shop and climbed onto the roof and just sat there, staring into the starry night. He didn't think about anything and he let the cool evening breeze wash away his worries.

Naruto sat like that for hours until he felt something hard make contact with his back. He fell from the roof, feeling his left Tibia and Fibula snap as his leg bent outwards when he made contact with the ground. Through the pain, Naruto watched as a man who was obviously a ninja landed in front of him.

Naruto, Terrified and in agonizing pain, tried to scramble away from the man but with his leg in the condition it was he wasn't moving anywhere quickly. The ninja pulled out what looked like a pair of brass knuckles but with a knife attached to the side. The knives soon started to glow with a blue aura of chakra surrounding them. Still trying to move away from the man but was stopped when the man grabbed his good leg and stabbed it with his knife, then twisting is within the flesh before removing it.

Naruto couldn't help but scream as the chakra coated blades tore through his nerves and muscle like a chainsaw. His legs now both causing him excruciating pain.

Naruto started to lose focus on what was going on. The man moved up on Naruto's body, stabbing the left side of Naruto's stomach before dragging his knife across to the right. Cutting through the seal that appeared on his stomach when the chakra blades made contact with it.

Naruto was in unimaginable pain and when he felt darkness creep up on him, he eagerly allowed it to consume him to take away the pain, not noticing the now glowing seal on his chest. The ninja watched, panicked and frightened of what he might have just caused as the seal glowed an ominous red glow. The ninja fled hoping that what he had done hadn't caused the demon to be released from its mortal body.

Naruto's body quickly healed itself, but his amazing healing factor seemed to be slowing down. It took half an hour for his wounds to heal instead of the usual five minutes. But when the wound on his stomach finally healed it showed the seal glowing only faintly with a line going through the centre along the path the knife had taken when cutting through Naruto. Once the glow faded the seal hid itself within his skin once again.

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**I know I've managed to get this up quickly but don't expect me to do this all the time, I just haven't started uni yet and I have a lot of free time at the moment. Anyway I really need to know if I'm writing well or not, any review is appreciated. I know that my story doesn't match up with the summary at the moment but it will soon enough. I write it all out on paper before I type it as well so the story can be its best both grammatically and in the plot. If anyone has any questions (know that I am not going to give away any spoilers for this story) feel free to PM me.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I do not own naruto**

* * *

**Chapter 3**

Naruto woke with a bad taste in his mouth.

He tried to stand up but instantly became nauseous and fell to the ground, throwing up beside him as he did. Naruto spat out the rest of the bile that remained in his mouth. Slowly rising to his feet to limit the dizziness he felt, Naruto moved to the entrance of the paper store.

Sitting down on a hard wooden chair, Naruto realised how drained he was. He felt like he didn't even have the energy to get off the chair. Naruto had never felt like this before. He doubted he would even be able to move if someone walked through the front door.

Now that he had thought of it Naruto turned his head and began to watch the front door lake a hawk. After a few minutes, Naruto shook his head, he was just being paranoid.

An hour passed and Naruto finally found the energy to get up. He moved to the rugged mattress he had found a few months ago which he had moved to the corner of the room that acted as his sleeping area. Naruto collapsed onto his bed, falling asleep before he even touched the mattress.

When Naruto one again awoke, he found that not much of his energy had been restored.

This had never happened before. All his life he had woken up feeling refreshed and new, even if he had been dying from poisons or losing blood when he went to sleep.

Naruto knew something was wrong, this new feeling of nausea combined with having less energy than ever, could not be a good thing. Thinking back to the medical books he had read, Naruto realized the symptoms he had could be just about anything. He hoped it was nothing, but decided to keep an eye on his body should another symptom show itself.

Naruto used what little energy he had to get off his bed and walk to the front door intending to walk to the nearby stream to get a drink. He stopped when he heard two thuds outside, a sound he had memorized to be a ninja's landing.

Naruto scurried over to the small panelled window and peeked an eye through. The first person he noticed was the Yondaime and behind him was the man who attacked him last night.

Curious as to why he would come back with the Hokage, Naruto listened in to hear what they were saying. "Here Hokage, this is where I attacked the demon and left him when the seal was damaged." The ninja who attacked Naruto said, standing in front of a puddle of Naruto's dried blood.

The Yondaime seemed to think for a minute before ordering "Asuma, I need you to gather any available jounin and find the demon. I need to look at the seal." The now identified Asuma responded with "Yes sir." Before disappearing. The Hokage followed not a second later in a flicker of yellow.

The part about a seal was put to the back of Naruto's mind when he heard a squad of jounin were now after him.

Jounin were the most dangerous of all ninja, they were the ones able to cause him the most pain. He knew if he wanted to live he would have to leave the village.

Naruto had played with the idea many times during the last year. But what had stopped him from actually leaving was the simple fear of the unknown. He didn't know how the people of other villages would treat him but he had always theorized that they would treat him even worse than he currently was as he would be an outsider.

Naruto locked his fears away and promised himself he would escape tonight. He walked out the front door after making sure there was no one around and ran into the darkness of the alleyways. Making it to the safety of shadows, Naruto was reminded of the lack of energy he currently had.

Breathing deeply, Naruto couldn't stop himself from coughing a few times. He decided he would hide somewhere away from the paper store until nightfall, when he could escape with the cover of darkness. Thinking of a place he wanted to see one last time before he left, Naruto began to move in the direction of the library's ruins.

Naruto pulled himself out from under the fallen support beam he had been hiding beneath. It was now night, the stars were clearly visible in the cloudless sky faintly illuminating the ground around him.

It was now or never Naruto told himself. He began his trek towards the hole in the wall he uses when he goes hunting.

Naruto poked his head out of the hole on the other side, only to quickly pull himself back in as one of the village's patrol ninjas passed right past where he was.

Trying to calm his racing heart, Naruto waited five minutes before attempting to leave again. Slowly crawling out, Naruto looked around before standing up.

It was strange. He had done this a thousand times to hunt but this time he felt a sense of achievement. He felt proud of himself that he was finally doing this. Even though he had no idea what the outside world was like except for what he had read in books.

Naruto knew he never had to set foot in this treacherous village again. Taking a step he noticed that despite his little remaining energy, his feet felt lighter, as if he had just lost half of his already miniscule weight. It made it so much easier to walk even with his low energy.

He felt like his life would finally get better. Naruto felt a smile touch his lips, something that he couldn't remember doing since the ramen duo were still alive.

It was an hour of walking tater that Naruto finally remembered what the jounin and the Hokage had talked about. "They were talking about a seal that had been damaged and me at the same time. Could it be possible that I have a seal on my body that was damaged last night?" Naruto said. Remembering where he had been cut by the jounin, Asuma, Naruto concentrated chakra in his fingers so he could reveal any hidden seals, noticing how hot his fingers became with his chakra in them.

He touched his stomach along where he had been sliced open the previous night and jerked when a seal showed itself, glowing a deep red. He couldn't believe there actually was a seal on him. How had he never noticed this before?

Naruto looked closely at the seal, it looked similar to the Death God Seal that he had seen in one of his fuinjutsu books but it wasn't the same. The Death God Seal was the most powerful containment seal and was only able to be activated by the Shinigami. The seal could contain anything of any size or power within a human host. One could summon the Death God to do the sealing at the cost of their own life.

It was then that it all clicked, the seal, the villagers thinking he was the nine tailed demon fox. Someone had sealed the Kyuubi within him using a variation of the Death Gods Seal. Seeing as the Yondaime seemed proficient in fuinjutsu given the fact he wanted to see the seal when there was the threat of it being damaged, Naruto figured that he was the one who had sealed the Bijuu inside him. He must have altered the seal to allow himself to live by casting it himself instead of the Shinigami. Naruto knew that changing a seal of that magnitude in the way the Hokage did would have caused some adverse side effects, but he just didn't know what they were.

Naruto then had a stray thought, if the Hokage was good enough with fuinjutsu to be able to create a seal at that level then he should realise that he was not the Kyuubi. So why does the Yondaime treat him just like all the other villagers do? Naruto had a feeling there was more to this than what he had already figured out. Pushing through the hurricane of thoughts and emotions, Naruto began to walk again.

Naruto woke to a bright light shining into his eyes. Blinking a few times he accustomed himself to the harsh beams of sunlight.

Naruto had made it to a small town just as the sun had risen and he had decided to rest. He slowly climbed down from the tree he had been sleeping on, to the ground. He looked to the sky and saw the sun was just past the centre of the sky indicating the time to be one o'clock in the afternoon.

Naruto began to walk towards the town he had seen earlier this morning. He needed to know if people treated him the same here as they did back in Konaha. Steeling his nerves, Naruto stepped into the town and walked down the centre of the main street, keeping his head low out of habit and preventing himself with difficulty from diving towards the shadows of the side alleys. After walking through the whole street with not one person paying him any mind, Naruto released a sigh of relief and stopped shaking. He only realised he had been shaking when he was overcome by a calm stillness. But his relief crumbled when he heard the words he hoped never to hear again.

"It's the demon!"

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**Please review, I need to know if I can improve anything or if I'm doing well with this story or not. The reviews will go to a good cause... getting me motivated to write more for this story. I had a bit of trouble getting this chapter into words but I don't think i stuffed it up. (I hope.) I wont be able to update from Monday through Thursday next week so i will try to get a chapter up by ****Sunday, but I probably wont make it. Anyway thanks for reading.**

**also does anyone know if a doc will be taken from a story when its life has ended? it probably wouldn't but i'm just wondering.**


	4. Chapter 4

**I'm not going to come up with some stupid excuse about my computer breaking down or needing to go to the hospital (I apologize to anyone who actually is telling the truth) but I have a busy life and I haven't been bothered to continue to write in the past few months. this chap I actually wrote down only a couple of weeks after my last update but i hadn't been bothered to type it up. so from now on I'm going to be writing directly on the computer, which may cause lower quality of writing (spelling and grammar isn't a problem though). Also the plot should be moving faster soon.**

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"It's the Demon!"

Naruto quickly spun on his heels, hoping that whoever had yelled out wasn't directing the call to him, but knowing that it was.

Naruto had spun his head into an oncoming fist, amplifying the damage. He grabbed his now bleeding nose as he fell to the ground. Before Naruto could do anything to protect himself, he felt the man's boot crush his chest forcing the air from his chest.

Naruto gasped to fill his lungs and pulled his knees into his chest to protect himself from the pain as much as he could. He held on to his legs waiting for the pain to come, just as it always did.

Naruto waited and waited, unwilling to lift his head to head to satisfy his curiosity of why the man hadn't begun to hit him. He felt something soft touch his shoulder and flinched away from it, holding himself even tighter.

Naruto tried to make himself as small as possible, just as he had done all his life to protect himself.

"Little boy, are you alright." Naruto heard a woman's soft voice ask. She spoke in a tone which no one had ever expressed towards Naruto.

He had heard it before when he had been observing the children his age play. One had hurt themselves on the playground equipment and the child's mother had used the tone while asking if her child was alright.

Naruto had been confused by the actions of both mother and child, he didn't know why the woman was speaking the way she was or why the child was crying from such an insignificant and painless cut.

As Naruto continued to watch he noticed that the boy wasn't healing and it must have been expected as his mother didn't seem shocked or surprised, which Naruto couldn't say the same for, this was the first time he had seen anyone else get even slightly injured so maybe it was just that he was weird, maybe he was the demon he had always been called.

But Naruto knew better than that now and as the woman used that tone that he still didn't understand, yet he craved to hear.

"I'm not going to hurt you."

Naruto knew he shouldn't trust the woman, as the man who had just hit him was proof that the world outside the village wasn't going to treat him any better, but against his better logic Naruto couldn't prevent himself from craving for someone to talk to him in that tone.

Naruto slowly raised his head from behind his arms and knees to look at the woman who had been speaking.

She seemed to be in her late 20's; she had both brown hair and eyes, she wore blue jeans and a red jacket covering a white tank top.

When the woman saw the boy's broken nose she instinctively reached out to see how bad it was.

When the woman moved her hand towards Naruto he flinched and backed away from her, wincing as he felt pain in his chest. Naruto saw that the woman retracted her arm upon seeing his reaction.

She gave him a sad smile, and told Naruto "Don't worry, I want to help you."

Naruto wanted to believe her. He wanted nothing more than to have someone who cared for him. Someone he could trust. Someone who wouldn't betray him.

Naruto gave a slight nod to the woman, still unable to resist her tone. He watched her closely, scrutinising her movements as she moved her hand to her pocket. She brought out a handkerchief and slowly brought it to his face to clear the blood, she was relieved to see that his nose wasn't broken.

The woman directed Naruto's hand to hold the handkerchief under his nose. "Hold that there. In a few minutes the bleeding should stop."

Naruto did as he was told and she pulled her arm away.

"So kid, what's your name?" she asked trying to get him to talk.

After a few moments of indecision, he replied softly "Naruto."

"Well it's nice to meet you Naruto. I'm Mari." She introduced herself, giving off a welcoming smile.

Naruto opted to remain silent and Mari's smile weltered as she realised he didn't share her enthusiasm and was still watching her sceptically.

"Are you alright? Does it hurt anywhere?" Mari asked.

Naruto didn't respond, instead he winced and covered his chest with an arm, as if her words had reminded him of the pain. His actions were the only answer she needed before reaching out to feel his chest, doing this she was oblivious to the look of confusion Naruto had as stared at nothing.

As Mari touched the child flinch away again, but it wasn't like the last time when he was scared of her touch nor was he flinching from pain. Mari thought it seemed habitual and he was doing it involuntarily.

Mari felt the boy's chest and guessed that the bastard had broken one of Naruto's ribs when he kicked him. She was sure he would be behind bars by now, as many people had seen the event play out including the sheriff and herself.

The man had called the child a demon. Naruto had stopped walking and turned around as if he knew it was him being called. Mari had seen Naruto's face just before he had been hit; it had the look of pure dread, like his worst nightmare was becoming a reality.

After Naruto had been knocked to the ground and hit a few times, in her rage Mari had knocked the man away from the boy making him stumble and lose his footing without even realising she had moved. Some people including the sheriff ran in and dragged the man away.

Mari had then approached Naruto to see if the boy was hurt. He had been huddled into himself, preparing for more of the onslaught; which it looked like he expected to come

Snapping out of her thoughts, Mari looked around and realised that Naruto had been wondering the streets alone.

Mari turned to Naruto and asked "where are your parents? Did you wonder off?"

He averted his eyes from Mari and sadly replied "I don't have any."

Mari hesitated before continuing, "well is there anyone to look after you?"

The boy just shook his head. Mari felt sympathetic for him but also curios about his past, she didn't push it though as she knew that Naruto probably didn't want to talk about whatever happened to him in his past.

Now that she knew that the boy was alone she couldn't leave him by himself. "How about you come with us? Mari asked.

"Huh?" Naruto responded with confusion as he furrowed his eyebrows.

Mari elaborated, "Why don't you come with Mirai and I? After you have recovered we will hit the road and you can travel with us." Mari's excitement at the prospect had leaked into her words. She would love to have another companion to accompany her and it seemed the kid had nowhere else to go anyway.

Naruto stared at her like she was crazy. "Are you serious? You don't even know me!" Naruto exclaimed.

"Well, we're just going to have to fix that, aren't we?" Mari replied, grinning.

"Do you think you can walk?" Mari asked after a moment of silence.

Naruto gave a small nod in reply before rising to his feet, hiding the pain he felt doing so.

Naruto was worried; normally the pain would have disappeared by now as the injury healed. This was bad and Naruto knew it. If it wasn't for his advanced healing factor he would have been killed a thousand times over.

This woman, Mari, seemed to want to protect him; something that no one else had done for him before. Then again nobody had ever wanted to do anything for him besides trick, torture and kill him; but that is irrelevant.

Naruto decided he would follow Mari, if he stayed by her side he might be able to live his life without pain and anguish. He just hoped the trust he placed in her wasn't for naught.

* * *

Naruto was led by Mari through the town as she excitedly described someone named Mirai to him. Naruto couldn't understand a word she was saying though as Mari was speaking too fast and rambling.

Before Naruto knew it, they were barging through the door of a motel room.

"Mirai, I'm back. Come here, I want you to meet someone." Mari called out beside him

Naruto saw the head of a pre-pubescent teenage girl pop up from behind the couch where she had been laying.

"What? You brought someone here?" the girl asked.

Not waiting for an answer she looked to Mari's side where Naruto stood. Mirai visibly brightened when she saw him. She leapt over the couch only to trip when she got a better look at his face. Mirai's excitement shattered, demeanour seemed to switch polarities from delight to depressed.

Mirai stayed frozen for a moment before running to one of the rooms and slamming the door.

Naruto was confused. He didn't have a clue as to what had just happened. Turning to Mari, he noticed she was staring at the door Mirai had run through. Seeing that she was deep in thought, Naruto didn't disturb her.

Naruto stood by the door, unsure what he was supposed to do. Fortunately for him, Mari snapped out of her thoughts quickly. "Naruto, you would be about seven or eight years old, wouldn't you?" she asked

"Yes, seven. Why?" Naruto replied

Mari sighed, "I'm sorry, I can't tell you. Mirai has to decide whether to tell you this herself." She said solemnly.

Although curious as to what would cause a reaction like the one he saw, he decided to let it go for now.

Mari then addressed Naruto. "Why don't you take a bath. You look like you haven't had one in years!"

"A bath?" he asked confused.

Mari looked amused "yeah. You know, one of those big tubs with water inside that you use to wash yourself." She said, teasing Naruto.

"I know what it is, It's just that I have never used one before." Naruto replied softly.

Mari was shocked, how could he not have had a bath before. She now doubted her previous assumption that Naruto's parents had just died and left him on his own, if that had been the case he would have used a bath before. Mari knew she now needed to ask him later, but now she needed to help him to become clean.

* * *

"Who would have known you were actually blonde under all that dirt and grime?" Mari exclaimed as both she and Naruto walked out of the bathroom. Naruto was wearing a bathrobe they had found in the wardrobe of the motel.

Mari had thrown his rags of clothing away and promised to get some new clothes for him as the robe he was wearing hung off his small and skinny frame like a blanket.

"You know, I actually thought you were a brunet." Mari continued, laughing.

Naruto sat down on the couch, wincing once again from the pain in his chest. Noticing his reaction, Mari declared, "Tomorrow, I am going to take you to see a doctor."

She then moved to the front door and called over her shoulder "I'm going out to get some things." before closing the door behind her.

Now that she was gone Naruto was left to wonder why his body wasn't healing as quick as usual. He hadn't told Mari about this or anything else from his life, as he was fearful of how she would react. He didn't want anyone else to start hating him, especially now that someone had actually shown him kindness.

Naruto tried to think of what would cause his accelerated healing to stop functioning. He thought back to the last time his healing had taken affect when he had been attacked in front of the stationary store.

He realised that was the same time that the Hokage and ninja said his seal had been damaged. Could his healing be a side effect of him being a jinchuriki? If so, that would mean something bad had happened to the seal. He did not know what was wrong with it, as the seal was well out of his league.

He never had been able to expand his knowledge of fuuinjutsu from what he had read in the books of his library. He could not experiment with seals as he didn't have a good enough understanding of chakra to use anything but the most basic seals. He knew how seals worked, he just couldn't perform them, and if he could he would have been able to protect himself.

Naruto was snapped out of his thoughts when the door to the room Mirai was in opened and said girl came out. She walked over to the couch and sat next to Naruto.

"I'm sorry about before." Mirai apologised keeping her eyes away from Naruto.

She turned to look at Naruto. "I'm Mirai by the way." She stated

Naruto figured she also wanted his name. "I'm Naruto."

Mirai then looked away from Naruto again. "Naruto, I'm sorry. When I saw you earlier I...I thought you were someone else. I thought you were my younger brother and I was so happy that he was back... so happy he was alive again that when I realised he wasn't, I just couldn't help but feel so betrayed. I realise my actions were rude and I am sorry."

Naruto felt weird, this was the first time someone had apologised to him and it was over something so small. "It's alright, no big deal. I'm sorry for your brother."

Mirai just nodded and they both fell into silence together.

* * *

**Please review, Motivation is key for new chapters:)**


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